An effective start in grocery retail. Format selection

Today, retail is going through difficult times: there are fewer buyers, the solvency of the population is declining, federal companies are opening supermarkets and killing sales of small shops.

Nevertheless, on the site of the closing stores, new ones open and everything repeats.

How not to be in this meat grinder? How not to be afraid of federal network companies? How to attract more customers to the store? How to open a new store and quickly promote it?

Today, retail is going through difficult times: there are fewer buyers, the solvency of the population is declining, federal companies are opening supermarkets and killing sales of small shops.

Nevertheless, on the site of the closing stores, new ones open and everything repeats.

How not to be in this meat grinder? How not to be afraid of federal network companies? How to attract more customers to the store? How to open a new store and quickly promote it?

We’ll talk about this today.

We will not talk about permits and licenses, but we will talk about how to make money.

The first thing to think about is, oddly enough, who your customers will be, how many there will be, how you will attract them, and what benefits they will receive from interacting with your business. Answers to these questions will help you determine the format of the store and its location.

The most common mistake is work from money. That is, you have 2 million that you can open for this money - this is the first question that many begin to think about.

What customers can be, here it is easiest to build on sales territory. If the store is near the road or in a busy place, then you can choose any contingent of income and any specialization. Quarterly stores are most often designed for local residents and are adjusted to their needs and affluence.

Next you need to choose the store format.

Format selection

There are two main grocery store formats. This is a counter store and self-service store. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

The counter store requires less space, less equipment, staff, and allows you to niche (butcher shop, convenience store, greengrocer, etc.) In the counter shop you can build personal relationships with customers, and you need to do this, let's talk about it later.

Moreover, an important point in choosing a format is exactly what clients it will be designed for.

Today there are 3 formats of shops that make a profit - these are supermarkets, specialty stores (meat, fish, beer, alcohol) and the third format is a convenience store.

Each format has its own target audience and they have their own needs.

A supermarket is the most expensive option, it is designed for the widest audience, but the important point is that this audience is demanding on the assortment of products, they often do not live near the store, come by car. A supermarket is associated with a low price for products. All visitors to supermarkets want to buy everything in this store and go home, and not go to any other store.

The audience expects that the products will be easy to find, select and get to put in the basket.

What does it mean?

We will touch on the rules for arranging equipment in another article. So, with this format of the store, you should definitely consider several factors:

1. The store should have good parking, accommodating all customers during peak hours.

2. The store should have a large assortment of products, and in each group of goods. It is better to abandon some groups of goods for the sake of providing a large selection of popular products. It often happens that when customers come to the store, they don’t find there natural milk or sausages, or even bread from a popular producer, and the buyer stops going there.

3. Trading equipment should be open. Avoid chests, closed bonnets and refrigerated cabinets. Each closed refrigerator sells 30% worse. Lari can be used only in the format of a chest for 1-5 products of the same type (ice cream, ice, frozen berries, etc.). If you pile a large assortment under glass, sales will be weak.

The convenience store is the customers of this store, it is 80% residents of nearby houses within a radius of 500 m. The main need is to replenish supplies. Therefore, here you can do with the counter, but competently arrange it. The convenience store is a big winner if it relies on customers who value fresh produce. To do this, you can configure the system so that customers know about the next delivery of goods and come up soon after delivery. How to do this, I will describe in the next article.

A very common mistake of shop owners at home is to save on commercial equipment, since this does not allow beautifully display the goods and reduces comfort. And comfort is an important quality of a convenience store. The person left the house in slippers and should feel at home and at home. Despite the development of supermarkets, convenience stores work very well all over the world. But it is important to know and love your customers.

What to do if a supermarket is opened near the house, and the store is already there?

Here, narrow specialization in one of the categories of products that are poorly presented in the supermarket comes first. A seafood store can have a large assortment of fresh fish and seafood. Beer store will sell a range of beer and snack assortment by weight. A butcher shop should sell chilled fresh meat. The supermarket here is not a competitor to you, as it is designed for conveyor services, and there is a lot of fuss with specialized products.

Another option is an elite grocery store. Allows you to have a good palette of diverse products for wealthy people.